Contents

Biography

Early life

At some point, the SharpClaws led by Scales attempted to become one of the leading tribes of Dinosaur Planet. However, they were denied a spot, instead losing out to the CloudRunner and EarthWalker tribes. At some point, Scales caught the eye of Andross, who by that point was a disembodied spirit. While making himself relatively unknown to Scales, he managed to donate a bit of his power and presumably his knowledge to Scales, allowing for him and his tribe to declare war on Sauria.

Ascent into power

At some point later, he led the SharpClaw army to war against the EarthWalker tribe at Krazoa Palace and the CloudRunner tribe in their fortress and the other tribes on the planet Sauria, and was the one responsible for the breakup of the planet by removing the Spellstones that stabilized the planet. He eventually raided Krazoa Palace, wiping out the EarthWalkers who were guarding the palace, although not without the EarthWalkers sensing the malevolent power behind Scales' assault. At some point, he was met with resistance with a group composed of a EarthWalker, a HighTop, a ThornTail, and Kyte, the CloudRunner who flew Krystal to Krazoa Palace, and defeated and captured them save for the ThornTail, who was secretly a GateKeeper and who managed to escape. As a security measure against potential meddlers, he assigned members of his tribe to guard Moon Mountain Pass and the Cape Claw area due to their connection to the Force Point temples. He also arranged for Prince Tricky to be captured and held prisoner at Ice Mountain.

Eventually, he ambushes the Cerinian survivor, Krystal, with his galleon, and after his ship was heavily damaged, he met up with her after she managed to procure a key for Krazoa palace and tried to kill her.

Search for GateKeepers

Afterwards, he hunted down the GateKeepers to gain access to the floating pieces of the planet, and he conquered each floating land mass one after another, as well as returning the SpellStones to their respective lands. Scales attempted to blackmail Garunda Te, the elder of the SnowHorn tribe, into opening the way to DarkIce Mines with the alternative of Scales committing genocide against the SnowHorns. Although Garunda Te still refused even at the cost of his tribe, his daughter, Belina Te, submitted to Scales and opened the gateway for him in order to save her race. Scales, true to his word, did not wipe out the race, but enslaved them instead and transported them to DarkIce Mines so they would be forced to work in the mines; he also had his minions seal away Garunda Te, presumably as his punishment for resisting him.

He later captured the CloudRunner Fortress and used it as his base of operations, as well as exiling the CloudRunner Queen to the main planet shortly after capturing her. At some point, he became privy to Fox McCloud's arrival on the planet, and upon the CloudRunner queen's return to the CloudRunner Fortress, he captures her and interrogates her about Fox's location. He then has her beaten after she states that Fox will find him and destroy him. Shortly after Fox reveals himself, he has Fox captured, and takes away his staff. Scales eventually manages to break into the treasure room where the SpellStone was and retrieved it, although Fox managed to intercept the SpellStone. Scales fled from the scene via a teleportation device on his belt, and Fox did not encounter him again until his penultimate visit to Krazoa Palace.

Although he did not capture Walled City due to the King Earthwalker sealing away his gatekeeping powers, he did nonetheless return the SpellStone to the Walled City sometime beforehand and also released the RedEye tribe from their imprisonment and gained their support in planetary domination, and likewise forced the EarthWalkers into hiding.

He also captured Dragon Rock and turned it into a prison facility for any enemies of his tribe, while releasing the full force of the planet's dark energy into the area, transforming it into a desolate wasteland and conducting experiments to transform prisoners into powerful killing machines such as Drakor.

Unexpected defeat

Later revealed to be the holder of the last of the Krazoa Spirits, General Scales prepared himself to fight Fox McCloud in the Krazoa Palace, using some kind of sword. However, this was not to be, as Andross interrupted their fight and forced Scales to relinquish the final spirit to McCloud.
Despite being a part of Andross' plan, General Scales seemed completely surprised and unaware of Andross's presence, as he questioned his identity and authority when Andross ordered him to simply give Fox the final Krazoa Spirit. Scales then grudgingly released his Krazoa Spirit after he let out a painful roar and collapsed to the ground without moving again. Three SharpClaw soldiers surrounded him and retrieved his belt before cheering as if celebrating.

When Fox returns from fighting Andross, he finds that the SharpClaw have liberated themselves from the general and are holding up his belt in victory. It is unknown what became of Scales afterwards.

Trivia

The relationship of General Scales and Andross is similar to two other Nintendo characters, Zant and Ganondorf, from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, in that both have two tyrannical minions given power by vastly more powerful beings who are both arch enemies of the main protagonists. On a related note, both Ganondorf and Andross had completely revived themselves shortly after Zant and General Scales had met their downfall, and both Zant and Scales started serving Ganondorf and Andross when they (or in Scale's case, his tribe) were denied a position of power. The only difference is that Zant was fully aware of his servitude to Ganondorf, while Scales was completely unaware of Andross's existence, never mind his role in Scale's rise to power.

During Adventures' viral marketing campaign, a wallpaper was released featuring Scales, where it claimed him as a benevolent leader in a somewhat sarcastic manner.

General Scales and Andross both seemed to have the exact same kind of eyes. This is probably deliberate to hint at Scales and Andross's connection. However, it should be noted that Scales' eyes differ, as he is seen with normal eyes in his official renders, but is shown differently during the course of the game, as he possesses a Krazoa Spirit.

Scales is one of the four major villains in the series, along with the Aparoid Queen, Andross, and Emperor Anglar, and one of only two to be mentioned in the Star Fox trophy section of Super Smash Bros. Brawl (only mentioned in Tricky's trophy information), the other being Andross. He is also the only one not to be fought as the final boss or in the whole game itself.

Despite being a central character and a major antagonist, Scales only gets about fifteen minutes on-screen, making just five appearances in total with eight lines in Dino Talk, spanning 70 words and 12 lines in English, spanning 94 words. He has a combined total of 164 words and 220 lines of dialogue.

It is currently unknown if General Scales is dead, as he was not seen in the final cutscene of Star Fox Adventures. In Star Fox Assault, Slippy says that the SharpClaw tribe got wiped out, so Scales may have been dead before or during the Aparoid Invasion.

It is unknown how General Scales managed to get a Krazoa Spirit, since it is said only a being with a pure heart can pass the test to be possessed by one. Of course, he could have simply been pure evil. There is also the possibility that this lone Spirit did not have a test to keep it safe from Scales' grasp.

The shadow of Scales appears on the box artwork of Star Fox Adventures, as if the artwork is taken from his own point of view. This is very likely, as he towers over every main character in that picture.

General Scales, alongside Captain Shears, are the only major Star Fox villains who do not have their names begin with an "A."